Death of Lonesome George
Pinta's last tortoise, a global symbol of extinction, dies
.jpg?width=640)
On 24 June 2012 Lonesome George, the last tortoise from Pinta Island, died in the Galápagos. Found in 1971, he spent 40 years as scientists searched in vain for a mate of his own kind. He became a global symbol of vanishing species.
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 21st century
Meanwhile around the world (±25 years)
Whole world
- 2008 Global financial crisis — 4 years earlier
Europe
- 1989 Invention of the World Wide Web — 23 years earlier
- 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall — 23 years earlier
- 1992 Maastricht Treaty — 20 years earlier
- 2002 Euro notes and coins — 10 years earlier
- 2012 Discovery of the Higgs boson — same year
Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1989 Revolutions of 1989 — 23 years earlier
- 1991 Dissolution of the Soviet Union — 21 years earlier
Middle East
- 1990–1991 Gulf War — 22 years earlier
Africa
- 1994 End of apartheid in South Africa — 18 years earlier
Asia
- 1989 Tiananmen Square protests — 23 years earlier
- 1991 Eruption of Mount Pinatubo — 21 years earlier
- 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami — 8 years earlier
- 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami — 1 year earlier
Oceania
- 1992 The Mabo decision — 20 years earlier
Alive at the time
- Nelson Mandela (aged 94)
- Neil Armstrong (aged 82)
- Jimmy Carter (aged 88)
- Fidel Castro (aged 86)
- Elizabeth II (aged 86)
- Gabriel García Márquez (aged 85)
- Mikhail Gorbachev (aged 81)
- Pelé (aged 72)
- George H. W. Bush (aged 88)
- Chinua Achebe (aged 82)